 COMMUNITY WIND POWER - A CASE STUDYWritten by CAT's free information serviceemail: info@cat.org.uk; tel: 0845 3308373 or 01654 705989 Click here to download a printable version of this sheet (2 sides A4, PDF format, 50KB). Introduction In April 2003 a community owned wind turbine started generating electricity close to the Centre for Alternative Technology. The following details have been supplied by local organisation Ecodyfi. The Concept The idea was formed in 1998 and discussed in public meetings and leaflets. Local people compiled the environmental assessment. Planning permission was obtained in 2001 with hardly any opposition - presumably because those who dislike such additions to the landscape appreciated it was relatively small and was keeping the financial benefits in the local economy. Construction took place between April and June 2002. CAT’s experienced engineers laid the foundations, erected and commissioned the turbine and carried out the grid connection. It was officially opened on April 5th 2003 by Cynog Dafis (Assembly Member), Bill Owen (Vice Chairman of Glantwymyn Community Council) and a hundred local people and guests. They named the turbine “Pwer Pobl - People Power”. Ownership The turbine is owned by Bro Dyfi Community Renewables Ltd (BDCR) - an Industrial and Provident Society (one vote per shareholder). There are 59 shareholders, including Baywind Energy Co-operative and the Energy Saving Trust (EST); the others are individuals. All bar three of the individual shareholders live in the Dulas and Dyfi valleys. 11 of them earned their shares by working on the project during the planning or construction phases. The minimum shareholding was £100 and the maximum had to be reduced to £1,000 so that everybody who applied could buy some. Those who leave their investment in for a 15 year term hope for an 8% rate of return. Financing The capital cost was £81,000 including spare parts and an extended warranty agreement. The construction contract was won by CAT and was worth £45,000, including the costs of connecting to the Grid and instrumentation. Operation and maintenance costs are estimated at £2,300 a year. The European Regional Development Fund gave a grant of £19,000, The Energy Saving Trust contributed £17,500 and the Scottish Power Green Energy Trust £10,000. These grants were arranged by Ecodyfi and the Powys Energy Agency, as part of a wider community renewable energy project supported by Powys County Council and the Welsh Development Agency. The Turbine A second-hand Vestas V17 turbine and tower was bought from Denmark, where many wind turbines are being replaced with larger ones. The turbine itself cost £15,000. The great majority of expenditure on the whole project was kept in the local economy. The turbine is on a 22 metre tower and has a rotor diameter (all the way across) of 17.5 metres. The turbine is on land owned by Forestry Commission Wales. They charge a non-commercial rent. Two other landowners have access agreements with the group because cables pass through their land. A link to the photo gallery showing construction of the community wind turbine can be found at www.cat.org.uk/media Capacity The turbine has a maximum output of 75 kilowatts. The projected annual output is 163 megawatt-hours (163,000 units). An average household uses about 4300 units (or kilowatt-hours) of electricity each year. This means that the output of the turbine is equivalent to the electricity used by nearly 40 homes. At the moment, based on our mix of coal, gas and nuclear, one unit of UK grid electricity will lead to emissions of 0.52 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2). Using the electricity from this turbine will therefore avoid the release of 85 tonnes of carbon dioxide, and so reduce our contribution to climate change. Management The dividends from EST's shares are put into a Community Energy Saving Fund and spent on practical measures to reduce energy use locally. This means that further CO2 savings (probably another 345 tonnes) can be made and that people will spend less on energy. This Fund is managed jointly by representatives of Glantwymyn Community Council, BDCR, Ecodyfi, and the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT). Initially, the power from the turbine was all sold to CAT. They were able to use about 30% of this directly on site and sold the rest on through the grid to power local houses (although the householders still paid their existing suppliers in the normal way). The structure of the electricity industry and its regulation make it prohibitively expensive for a small generator like this to actually sell the power directly to several different local customers. This arrangement changed in 2008, as CAT installed a woodchip-fuelled CHP (combined heat and power) unit, to provide the site with both heating and electricity. This CHP unit will be grid-connected, and as CAT can only have one grid-connection, the BDCR wind turbine will now simply sell electricity directly to the grid. Further information Bro Dyfi Community Renewables Ltd EcoDyfi Green Communities (part of the Energy Saving Trust) Energy4All
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